


people and places we've chosen (our time is more than a day)

by bizzybee



Category: Beyonders Series - Brandon Mull
Genre: Friendship only, Gen, Goodbyes, not angst but it's not fluff either, reminiscing on the past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-06-24 12:34:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19723789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bizzybee/pseuds/bizzybee
Summary: The morning before Rachel returns to Earth, two friends reminisce on what once was and what could have been.





	people and places we've chosen (our time is more than a day)

Rachel sat on the edge of a cliff overlooking the beauty of the Seven Vales, knees pulled up to her chest and languidly watching the pre-dawn scene beneath her. If there was one place she was going to miss when she went back to her world, it was the homeland of the Amar Kabal. The air was fresh, and the cold wind hinting at the impending autumn woke her in the early morning more than coffee ever could on Earth.

She wondered what she’d miss most about Lyrian, would it be the people, or Edomic? Her friends, no, her family, were now people that she couldn’t imagine living without; but also, Edomic had become so familiar to her that she couldn’t quite imagine how she had coped without it before arriving in Lyrian.

Even now, she flicked her wrist, muttered a command, and made a rock tumble down the steep cliff beside her. She enjoyed the pleasant jolt she still got from performing a command, and how she was able to split the falling boulder into gravel with ease. 

From over her shoulder, she heard someone say, "I thought I could find you here."

She knew before she turned that it was Jason behind her. It wasn’t just the sound of his voice (though she’d recognize that anywhere), rather, he knew that this was her thinking place, and if there was ever a day where she needed to think, this was it. 

“You found me,” Rachel replied, smiling. She stood to greet him, brushing off her trousers.

Jason, without hesitating, stepped forward and wrapped her in a hug. Rachel sighed, feeling tears well up in her eyes as she hugged him back. Ever since they had been reunited at Felrook, hugs from Jason had come often. There were the joyful hugs, there were the goodbye hugs, and there were the comforting hugs. This hug was a sad and soft combination of all three.

A few quiet tears leaked out of the corner of Rachel’s eye. Jason let go after a long beat, but Rachel held on for a moment more. When she took a step back, she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.. She let out a short, breathy laugh when she saw that Jason seemed to be holding back tears too. 

“We sure are a mess, aren’t we?” Jason said, and that made her smile. They both turned back to the scene before them, as though deciding that eye contact would simply be too painful for the moment.

“Here, let’s sit,” Jason said, and he did just that, with his long legs dangling off the ledge. Rachel matched his position.

They sat in silence, and Rachel simply enjoyed Jason’s presence, swinging her feet in the open air beneath her. They had reached the point where they were comfortable with silence early in their friendship; that was one of the things she liked most about Jason. 

“Look!” Jason said, pointing. Rachel’s gaze followed, and saw a bird, swooping and soaring through the air currents. Though most birds on Earth wouldn’t be worth much mentioning, in Lyrian, the Seven Vales in particular, the birds were at least three times larger than any on Earth, and had gorgeous, multi-colored feathers. She and Jason had made a habit of pointing out the best ones to each other as they were going about their days, always to the amusement of the Lyrian natives.

“What do you miss most about Earth?” Rachel asked. She could sense Jason’s slight startle at the question. 

“Um,” Jason mumbled. “Um, do you-”

“No, just, can you tell me?” They had spoken of Earth less and less as their time in Lyrian went on, but, as their time was coming to an end, thoughts of Earth plagued Rachel’s mind more and more. 

“Well,” Jason said, rocking back on his heels. “I mean, I miss my family and everything but, if I had to be honest, running water is right at the top of my list.”

Rachel snorted, and then laughed. It wasn’t like she hadn’t thought the same thing, many times, but to hear it said aloud by Jason brought newfound humor to the thought.

“I think, as soon as I get home, I’m gonna flush a toilet just to hear the sound. And run all the taps in my house.”

“Yeah, that’ll convince your parents you’re feeling perfectly fine and not at all crazy after being missing and probably presumed dead for years.” Jason was laughing now, too.

“I don’t even care. It’s gonna feel like a life of luxury, just having filtered water. And ice cubes.  _ God _ , I miss ice cubes.”

“Dude, me too,” Jason agreed. Rachel thought it was funny that Jason had still stuck to the same slang he had used on Earth. She didn’t speak in the same way she used to on Earth; she had gradually adopted the same manner of speaking as Lyrian natives. She had also lost her fluency in French and Spanish, though she still remembered a few words. She hoped the same wouldn’t happen to her knowledge of Edomic. At that thought, her eyes welled up once more. 

She wondered if she would regret it, going home. She wondered if she would live every day of her life wondering what could have happened if she had stayed. She wondered if it was too late -- if she could still tell Jason that, never mind, she wanted to stay, and could he please, please,  _ please _ , go back to Earth in her place. 

But she could never do that. Not to Jason and not to herself. She knew that if she stayed, she would always wonder what her life would be like if she had gone home. 

And, she supposed, Earth really _ was  _ her home _.  _ Her parents were there. Going back to Earth had been what she wanted, the happy wish she had clung to throughout the last stages of their rebellion. Jason had a life here, he had an estate and people who looked to him for leadership. She had a life on Earth. God, she had to stop doubting herself.

“So, how are you and Corinne?” she asked. 

Jason glanced at her, and seemed to notice her need for a change of subject. 

“Yeah, I don’t think things are going to pan out on that front.”

Rachel, amused, simply glanced at him from the corner of her eye, grinning. Jason hadn’t been especially vocal about his longstanding crush in the past few years, but he, stubborn thing that he was, had never admitted to Rachel that he had moved on.

“Yeah, I don’t think I’m really her type.”

“Finally noticed her making eyes at  _ every _ pretty girl who stopped to look at her statue in the square?”

“Something like that,” 

Rachel turned towards Jason and poked him in the chest, her smile widening to a grin. “I always wondered if you’d ever get over her. You were so annoyingly obvious about your undying love for her for so long.” 

“I was not!”

“Yes you were. Every time she walked past you your face would turn so red and you’d stop listening to whoever you were talking to.  _ Everyone _ knew about it.”

Jason covered his face with his hands, clearly embarrassed. 

“That’s the exact shade you would turn, too!” Rachel laughed. 

He uncovered his face. “Not  _ everyone _ knew. Corinne didn’t know.”

Rachel snorted, and gave him a look that very clearly said,  _ Yes, Corinne definitely did know, she is just so kind that she didn’t want to embarrass you by acknowledging it only to reject you. Honestly. _

“This is just going to make our friendship so many levels of awkward now.”

Rachel poked him again, this time a little harder. “Don’t you dare. She’ll kill me if she finds out I told you.”

“You two have talked about this? I’m getting a little tired of being left out of the telepathy loop,” Jason complained. 

“It’s not my fault you’re not intelligent or creative enough to open up your mind.”

Jason playfully punched her on the arm. “You’re so annoying.”

Rachel sighed and leaned her head on his shoulder, scooting a little closer. “You know, I’m gonna miss that stupid face of yours.”

“You’d better.” He raised his eyebrows. 

Rachel sat back up and hit his arm back.. “I’m trying to be serious, you ass.” She hit him again, for emphasis. 

“Okay, Okay,” Jason put his hands up defensively. “Sorry. My bad.”

“Good,” Rachel smiled again. She tentatively leaned her head on his shoulder again and turned her gaze to the horizon, knowing this would be easier without eye contact. “You’re just. You’ve been a great help to me these past years, and a great friend, and a….,” she trailed off for a moment. Jason let his head rest on top of Rachel’s. “And if I had to choose anyone to be stuck in Lyrian with, I’d choose you.” She looked at their hands, a small space apart. She tentatively extended her pinky across that space, not sure how he’d react, as she continued talking. “I’m just, it’s going to be so  _ difficult _ to have to deal with Earth without you, and I just. I want you to know how much you mean to me.” 

She grazed her pinky against his, and felt Jason tense momentarily, but relax and turn his hand, palm facing up so that Rachel could lace her fingers through his. “It’s just going to be so weird,” she continued, feeling braver, “having to go through the rest of my life without you. I guess it’s just hard for me to believe that we won’t spend the rest of our lives together. I love you a lot, and I guess I just wanted you to know that.”

Rachel felt Jason swallow. “I love you, too,” he said, and lifted his head off hers, looking at her. “And, hey.” Rachel looked up at him, turning her head without taking it off his shoulder. “You’re going to do great on Earth. Give it a few days and you won’t ever want to come back. Give it a few years and you might even forget my name.” He grinned. 

Rachel stared at that grin, trying to imprint it into her memory. “I’d never forget your name.” She looked back up at his eyes and saw something flash there, though it may have just been her imagination. Rachel suddenly realized how easy it would be to lift her mouth to his and kiss him. 

\--

It had happened once before.

\--

It was Rachel’s sixteenth birthday (or, at least, what they had estimated her birthday to be on the alternate Lyrian calendar). There had been a private celebration with Jason, Corinne, Galloran, and the other survivors of their quest, and the small party had gone long into the night. Around midnight, guests started to trickle out the door wishing her a happy day, until it was just her, Jason, and Corinne left sitting around the table They played a few rounds of Higlo, a popular Lyrian game involving many dice and a unique scoring system, before Corinne had decided to retire and head home. Rachel and Jason had continued playing alone for awhile, not making much conversation outside of the game. Rachel remembered being hyper aware of the silence around her. Though she liked to convince herself, now, that she was over Jason, at sixteen she had still been head over heels for his easygoing ways and sweet smile.

“Thanks for the gift,” Rachel said, when the silence had gotten too much to bear. He’d given her a warm, fur-lined coat ‘for the breezy ocean journeys,’ to the Celestine Library and back. “It was really kind.”

“Oh,” he’d said, glancing up at her for a moment. “It was nothing, really. I mean, anything for you.”

Rachel had blushed fiercely at that. It was something he said often, and had turned into something of an inside joke, but it never failed to make her smile.

It seemed that so often, right when she thought Jason was hopeless and noticed nothing of her feelings for him, he would say something kind and she’d fall for him all over again.

They let silence fall over the room again, and at the end of the next round, Jason stretched out his arms and leaned back in his chair. “I’m getting tired,” he’d said, wiping a hand down his face.

“Me too,” Rachel admitted, glancing at him from across the table. 

He smiled at her. “I should probably go, then.” He was the first to stand, and Rachel followed him to her feet. 

“I’m really glad you came,” she’d told him, wrapping her arms around herself, watching Jason as he shrugged on the coat that had been draped across his chair. 

“Anything for you, Rach,” he’d smiled at her again, and she’d blushed again, bit her lip and smiled back. 

They’d talked about nonsense as she walked him to the door of her home. She was staying at a small cottage on Jason’s property at Caberton, and felt a little weird showing him to the door of a house that was technically his.

He’d turned when the reached the door, one hand on the doorknob. They were standing a bit too close together, and Rachel instinctively took a small step back. She looked at him in silence for a moment, and Jason looked back. Usually, the silence between them was so comfortable, but now there seemed to be an unspoken tension in the air.

“It’s been a good birthday,” She’d said eventually, just to break the silence. 

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m glad.” He’d said, hesitated for a moment, then took a breath, stepped forward, and closed the space between them. 

The kiss was soft and sweet and everything Rachel had hoped would happen, for her first kiss. But before she could start to kiss him back, he pulled away and looked at her. 

“I, um,” he mumbled. “I don’t really know why I just did that.”

Rachel had wanted nothing more than to step forward and kiss him again, but all courage had left her as soon as Jason said, pushing the words out in a single breath, “You’re a great friend, Rachel.”

“Oh, my god,” she blurted out before she could stop herself. She knew he didn’t mean it rudely, and sensitivity had never been one of his strong suits, but she still had to carefully disguise the hurt that flashed across her face. 

“I just-”

“No, it, it’s fine,” she interrupted. “I get it.” She had smiled to show just how okay with this she was (though on the inside she was dying) and playfully slapped his arm. “You’re a good friend too. Buddy.” She’d cringed at that ( _ buddy _ ?  _ seriously _ ?) but kept her face smooth and passive. God, why did he have to kiss her and then say, of all things, that she was a great ‘friend?’ If anyone could kiss someone and then reject them romantically in the next breath, it was Jason.

He’d tried to step forward and wrap her into a hug, but Rachel took a step back. Jason stood there awkwardly for a moment, arms outstretched, but eventually the spell broke and he let his arms dangle at his sides, swinging them back and forth as if that’s what he’d been attempting to do the whole time.

“Um, goodnight, Happy Birthday,” he’d said without looking at her, then let the cold night air into the room as he opened the door and then closed it softly behind him. 

\--

They’d never spoken of it again, and though it had been awkward to show physical affection for awhile, Rachel tried to chase the more embarrassing parts of the night from her memory and was mostly successful. However, that entire night replayed in moments behind her eyes as she looked up at Jason now. 

She wondered if he was thinking the same thing. 

Well, she decided, if there was ever a time to tell Jason her real feelings for him, it was now. He’d already confessed that he was over his long-standing crush on Corinne. Her old infatuation with him was rearing its ugly head as she studied his eyes, trying to discern the feelings on display there.

She knew, in her heart, though, that she wouldn’t be the one to kiss him again. In a few days she’d never see him again. Now was not the time to make a move and cause unneeded awkwardness in her last few days. 

And besides, she thought, those feelings really weren’t the same anymore. Gone were the days where she longed for him, wanting nothing more than for her to be the object of his affections, rather than Corinne. They were friends now, best friends, and she didn’t want to change that for anything.

Jason leaned in, and, for one crazy, weird moment, Rachel wondered if  _ he  _ was going to kiss  _ her _ . But he only pressed a kiss to her forehead, there and then gone again in the briefest of moments, before turning his gaze back to the sunrise.

Rachel stared at her best friend for a moment more, breathing in his scent mingled with the cool, fresh air of the mountains. She was happy. She was safe. She was warm. 

No, she decided, Edomic definitely wasn’t what she’d miss most about Lyrian. Not even close. 


End file.
